[extropy-chat] I keep asking myself...

John K Clark jonkc at att.net
Tue Apr 18 17:25:07 UTC 2006


"Heartland" <velvet977 at hotmail.com>

> A revived person would obviously *feel* similar
> to what people feel after waking up

And that's all I'm interested in, I want to *feel* alive. You can tell me
tell you're blue in the face that objectively I'm dead but if subjectively I
feel alive then I am.

> It's the other created instance that will but you
> will "feel" eternal nothingness instead.

Even at a cutting edge place like the Extropian List your conventional ideas
that you are an object and atoms give you individuality are agreed with by
the majority of list members, and in the general population a similar naïve
world view is shared by 99% of the people in our culture. And 99% are wrong.
The error is caused by people looking at themselves as a noun, a proper noun
even, when in fact they are an adjective; an adjective that would take a
good number of bits to fully spell out but an adjective nevertheless.

> What you feel is a copy's illusion.

But you said it yourself, "you feel". And there is nothing wrong with
illusions, they are a perfectly reputable subjective experience. And there
is nothing wrong with copies either.

> Anytime mind process stops running a person dies.

So I guess if you ever need major surgery you would refuse a general
anesthetic. What would you do, tell the surgeons to cut quickly and just
bight down on a stick? After all, under a general anesthetic there is no
mind, your brain is no more conscious than your liver.

   John K Clark





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